Commented 16 years ago2008-02-22 13:38:19 UTC
in vault item: fy_dustyworldComment #16450
I can assure you, there's another 10 to 20 maps with the exact same name, all of them being iceworld remakes with dust textures.
Search cs-maps.org or fpsbanana and you'll see.
Remaking a crappy map like iceworld and making it suck even more by removing the last shred of originality and texturing it with dust textures is nothing more than wasting your time.
One doesn't usually see plenty of bigger Christmas-special projects, mostly because the Spirit of Christmas Mapping comes late, mostly by mid-December, and it's usually impossible to create anything half-decent in such a short period of time. However, Hlife_Hotdog seems to be getting the aforementioned spirit somewhat sooner and has already managed to provide TWHL with solid Christmas mods two years in a row. Not only does the sequel to Santa's Revenge, Santa's Revenge 2: Xmas Meltdown pack your sleigh with gunpowder-filled snowballs, it also hands you an extra pair of mittens.Following the story - some evil kid arranged a whole kindergarten Wehrmacht against Santa (you) because someone didn't bother making presents for this Christmas. So before you know it - elves are being slaughtered, your Grotto's getting some extreme TNT-induced makeovers and worst of all - you're forced to finally get off your comfortable Santa's throne and haul some obnoxious arse. This is where you're introduced to the witty and creative replacements for weapons, items and monsters, plus a new Santa's interface. Ironically, even if default weapons are replaced with their toy counterparts, like a squirtgun for the 9mm Pistol and scale Dodge Viper models for Snarks, the kids (formerly human grunts) you fight bleed for real and don't seem like they're going to be OK once gibbed with the Christmas tree Crowbar replacement. To counter that, the fact that you're using toys as weapons is made pretty clear when it takes shitloads of ammo and patience to take out even the weakest enemies. I understand trying to make things challenging, though unless you've got a couple of "just-in-case" Santa sleighs stuffed with explosives parked behind the back, you'll most likely be spending 3 or more frustrating minutes Christmas tree-bashing or squirt-gunning those bloody steroid-stuffed snowman zombies. Adding to the frustration factor, the absolute lack of autosaves often forces you to replay the same hard-as-hell sections over and over again. Another amazingly annoying thing deteriorating the experience was the use of dense fog in large battle arenas with less cover. Fog, being just a client-side visual effect in Half-Life, only limits the player's view distance, leaving any other monsters with perfect, clear vision. In the park level, this results in being raped with every projectile imaginable from all four directions at once, while running around desperately frantically looking for who and from where is shooting at you. Impossible? More like to-hell-with-this-shit-hard.There were also some other annoying nitpicks, like unrealistic fall damage in the rooftop area, where a 3 meter fall kills you instantly, or the booby-trapped present placed in the barn outside the Grotto exploding in your face once aproached. Not leaving any kind of notice or warning (you could've gone ala The Citizen with a large "DO NOT TOUCH" sign) turns a trap with loads of lulz potential into just another reason to quickload. Surprisingly though, monsters were placed quite well throughout (with the exception of the park level), along with ammo and powerups, which would've made gameplay quite enjoyable if it only wasn't for the godlike strength of your enemies. I also enjoyed some parts, like the parachute sequence, swinging on huge metal support beams from building to building in the rooftops and of course the final boss encounter (that little bastard should've been armed with the Egon, or at least crowbar! ;> )Much like gameplay, architecture was, even if mostly quite diverse and clean, often lacking that "something" to make it really bloom. Santa's Grotto, for example, like any fairy tale-like imaginary place, lets the mapper leave his usual coherence or realism constraints behind and simply go nuts making up the craziest, most inventive and maybe even surreal environments for their respective made up occupants to prosper in (or not). However, even if having a rather unique style for its interior with red ribbon-like supports and trims, it was still a set of boring blocky grey concrete corridors, broken up by the occasional open area, often stuffed with crates. A bit of the usual details like pipes, gratings and random gadgets, plus some Christmas trees or lights (as seen in Santa's Revenge 1) would've spiced things up just right there. More areas suffer from similar problems, like the rooftops, which are, pretty much, plain concrete surfaces with a vent or two desperately trying to break them up.It's not all coal in your stockings with architecture, however. Even if the interior had its issues, the first room with Santa's throne was rather spectacular. With its superbly crafted large toy soldier statues, overall good detail and a cool destruction sequence in the end, it was really close to how the other areas should've ended up looking like. Adding to that, the Grotto exterior and surroundings, even if nearly unplayable with wpolies going as high as 3000 (thanks to the awesome idea of killing leaks by putting a skybox around the entire level), was also nicely built. Having quite nice (yet poorly optimized) scenery and decent detail, it probably was my second favorite area after the throne room. Another and, again, very laggy area, was the park. The canal looked very convincing thanks to awesome reflections, paths were nicely curved and detailed; Only thing I think it lacked architecture-wise was more height variation in terrain. Even with the huge r_speeds in that area, some extra hills and trenches for cover, if properly optimized, would've pretty much saved gameplay there and made the park much more believable and interesting to explore.Though it's ambience and lighting that were the weakest aspects of this mod. Ambience, even if not completely overlooked, was very lacking and, in most places, left out. Bland corridors were even more boring without a single ambient sound to at least somehow spice them up, outside areas, where ambience is usually the main thing making that place feel open and borderless, had either a single silent wind sound in the background, or no ambience at all. Some other key areas, like the throne room also suffered from this problem. It would've been fun to hear some more subtle Christmas-themed ambience aswell - that alone would've added a lot to the holiday atmosphere.As for lighting - there's not really much to say. Apart from the single half-decent-lit area, the park, where you couldn't see any of the lighting due to the dense fog, almost every other single room was lit with the usual plain boring yellow. Hell, even blue texlights lights emitted the same bloody color. Lighting usually saves average-looking boring rooms and makes them at least somehow more interesting. In this case, though, it just added to the dullness and deteriorated the Christmas atmosphere.Bad things aside, texturing was refreshingly solid throughout the mod. I found no serious issues and even if there were any minor alignment issues or scaled up faces, these were mostly compensated by a nice array of custom textures. They weren't anything too spectacular, yet did their job right and with all the other cool custom content, made Santa's Revenge 2 feel even fresher (add some motivational posters for the elves inside the Grotto next time! ^^ )
Bottom Line
Even if lacking in most areas, this is an awesome piece of work for a Christmas mod. With the hilarious new content and some of your patience, Santa's Revenge 2: Xmas Meltdown could probably be considered the best way of bringing a bit of Half-Life to the holidays.
Commented 16 years ago2008-01-27 07:16:14 UTC
in vault item: dm_tylanComment #16295
The map if fullbright (you didn't compile RAD for some error, probably because of a LEAK), so it can't be placed in Completed Maps.
Look through your compile log (a .log/.txt file in the folder with the .rmf file of this map) for any errors and/or warnings and post em' here, or make a thread about them.
This mod, being a collaboration between some of the best independent mappers out there, Kasperg and Playbus, was definitely something to look forward to with great anxiety and huge expectation. Five minutes after the first release, when pretty much every PlanetPhillip member had already finished it and found all the secret areas, half the community here had already gotten their hands on it. Lots of discussion was spawned and before you know it - TWHL was being torn apart by intense arguing, which later evolved into flamewars, resulting in other, much stronger repercussions.To Citizen or not To Citizen?That was the question. Answer time.- The two following paragraphs contain my horribly long-winded opinion and overall thoughts on gameplay in this mod. It's more tips & suggestions for developers, so feel free to skip it if you're not interested in that kind of stuff. Gameplay-wise, this mod definitely had its weirder choices and faults. Probably the first things you notice are some holes in the story and NPC actions, where it's sometimes unclear what you/they are doing and why.In the beginning - you're thrown straight into action with metrocops bursting through your door and administering the recommended negotiation technique. Beating the shit out of you. Strangely, this event stays as the only ingame-shown reason, besides the short briefing, for you to have ever joined the rebels in this mod. Even if PlanetPhillip's description does mention your family being slaughtered by the Combine, no more detailed ingame info makes you question the whole reason for The Citizen (TC) to have started his crusade in the first place. A slightly longer story or even a dramatic scripted flashback scene, where you actually get to see CPs execute your family, would give your actions a lot more purpose and depth; kinda like Alyx's first encounter with the Hunter in Ep2.Another problem with that in the beginning, which pretty much everyone, who's played the mod has already complained about, is that you're given no info on your current goal. At this point, I was wandering randomly in the building, searching every area, pressing buttons that shouldn't be pressed, until I randomly used this girl with a white shirt, who then directed me to one of the rebels residing in the building. Being noted to search the residents for your contact, who's wearing this and that or some other hint would've saved everyone some time. Frustration in the beginning is very bad for any mod, so such stuff, even if intentional, should be kept for later chapters, when the player's already accustomed to the style of gameplay.It's also strange that most rebels trusted you way too much for someone they're seeing for the first time, like Argento, who gives you his only keycard to a door five steps away from his apartment. Now, unless the lucky sod has so many copies of the card that he can actually give one away to every random rookie like you, I have absolutely no idea why he doesn't just walk over and open it for you.However, some of the weirdest gameplay choices were featured in Crossing the Road - the sewers level, Finding Friends - the airboat sequence and in the end of Holy War - the strider battle. In the Sewers, first thing you notice are the unusually large and unrealistically designed buttons, which are used to open codelocked doors. Sure, they're meant to be obvious and big enough for the player to be able to use them, but let's not go beyond I-Just-Wet-My-Nappies-Baby-Mode. I also find the idea of writing the button combination required to open a specific door right next to the door itself beyond plain logic. A number like this usually shows the number of the room behind the door in real life, so most gamers are used to ignoring these, while level designers usually use them to add some extra detail to a map. Another thing weird is that the designer of this level had a huge urge kill the player if he had the nerve of wading into chest-deep water, so to do so, he thought of placing leeches, creatures usually found in the sea or lakes in HL2's universe, in a sewer environment. Sure, I'm no alien fauna expert, but not having found one single leech in the original City17 sewers from HL2 simply makes you wonder why the ones in TC have them. And speaking of fauna in that level, there's no other monsters but one zombie to be found there. A headcrab or two and maybe a barnacle in the large sewer pipe would've added some more action to the level, plus, if the player hadn't found the crowbar yet, that would've made him wonder why he's being attacked with his pants down and maybe force him to explore his surroundings more carefully.As for the airboat sequence, I'm sure almost anyone, who's ever played HL2, would expect it to be an immense experience with you dodging mines, rockets and bullets while quickly searching your nearest pile of rubble for something to do for a ramp and jolt you in the air at high speed, flying over combine soldiers with them desperately yelling they won't be home for dinner into the radio as you land on what used to be their heads. It's only natural - the airboat is fast, light and doesn't sink no matter how many mines you run over with it or how many other projectiles hit it. However, Kasperg & Playbus thought of making something opposite to the epic stuff seen in the original sequence and make it a simple, short, slow and linear trip. There were barely any areas where you could speed up for real. The way I saw it, the boat served as a quicker way to get from chokepoint A to B, since in the chokepoints themselves - it was pretty much as useless as a lifejacket in a sea of beer.However, it is the not-so-epic strider battle being one of the biggest disappointments in the mod. It somewhat reminded me of the EP1 final strider encounter, just even more cramped, with the poor biomechanical monster having almost no chance of utilizing it's full potential. So, you take it out, along with a sniper and another wave of combine. Nothing too challenging if you stay close to the RPG rocket crate. That battle has loads of potential, so really could've been executed better. The surroundings should be made much bigger, allowing the monster to actually move; if you don't feel like making the area by Elvet at least three times bigger - an alternative would be moving the whole thing to the church area in Holy War. Being a much bigger arena, it would provide some nice destruction moments (like the hospital gunship fight in Ep1) and much better gameplay.Some bugs were also present. From smaller problems with doors not opening at Elvet Theatre because of dodgy grunt assaulting, to more serious stuff like buggered entity setups, making your teammates attack you in the final chapters, or letting you nearly skip some parts, like the reinforcements bell in Holy war; these bugs, even if mostly avoidable, add quite a bit of frustration and deteriorate the experience.Of course, it's not all bad decisions and problems with gameplay in The Citizen. On the contrary, some parts were innovative and just plain awesome.Getting to use physics to kill your enemies was, even if not used much throughout the mod, a very nice idea. Falling on a CP's head, crushing the nonce or letting a crate that appears to weight a couple of tones do it for you was not only fun, but also an effective and fun technique of eliminating any threats when unarmed. Speaking of gameplay techniques, where weapons play a secondary role, stealth elements were also added to some of the levels. I actually found it a nice alternative to the usual ones, like scripted scenes or vistas used to relieve tension brought up by intense combat sections and eliminate fatigue. Stealth parts of TC vary from plain sneaking in corners, avoiding patrols and pressing the right buttons in order to advance to probably the awesomest experience in the entire mod - disguising yourself as one of the Combine. Not only did it feel a bit like Hitman and you actually got to see how Barney feels when disguised as a CP, it also looked very cool with neat mask imitations. These parts could easily be dubbed as the fat layer of topping with cherries ontop of the cake that is this mod. Also, if you're more of a Rambo type - each stealth section could've been replaced by a fragfest on up-the-arse-nightmare-mode. Variety in gameplay is one of the main factors that determine the replayability of any level/mod, so adding some is indeed a great idea. And speaking of combat - even if a bit dry and plain in the beginning, I must say it was very well-executed in the end. Having well-designed arenas with lots of vertical gameplay, objects for cover, good enemy and powerup placement, it was a blast to play. Neat random additions, like the Combine advisor or Gman making the occasional spooky appearance also added to the fun factor, though I think some of these appearances could've been utilized in telling the story, rather than just staying there for show. My favorite scripted parts were the scanner sequence and the final ending. Not much to say about the scanner part, it was just cool. Think Microsoft Flight Simulator Combine and you'll pretty much have a good idea on what it's about. As for the ending - I'm not spoiling anything, but the whole setup kind of reminded me of Ep1. It was quite clean and the use of some HL1 sounds gave it a nice feel.That's it for my thoughts on gameplay. Concluding this monstrosity, I'd like to say that, even with the bugs and problems, I really enjoyed playing it. The good parts mostly did a good job covering up the bad ones and with some bug fixing and tweaking - it could easily evolve into something truly fantastic.Continuing with the good stuff, architecture, being Kasperg's fort? and something Playbus has also already mastered, was superb in most areas. Buildings outside looked clean and realistic, with height variation and detail to make them look real and convincing. My favorites were the ones in the very beginning including the one you were residing, with a very nice 3D skybox blending with them and the church, which, even if smaller than the usual ones you see, looked quite authentic and actually felt a bit like a holy place. I also liked the original and well-crafted dome-like glass roof with its supports above the basketball court next to Argento's bar. The warehouse itself was also very well-made with nice and detailed supports fitting its architecture very well. Inside areas, however, even with the really good-looking ones, like Breen's compound, or the stage in Elvet Theatre, seemed to lack the detail and diversity the outside ones had. Rooms and corridors, like ones in the theatre, or subway tunnels in the end of Finding Friends ended up being bland, undetailed or with weird design choices, which made them feel a bit like HL1 sometimes. The large sewer pipe in Crossing the Road could've also used some more detail, maybe grates in the ceiling, giving it some daylight and creating nice contrast in lighting.Texturing was solid throughout, though I did find some texture choices pretty strange. For example, one of the buildings in the alley where you escape into the streets in Lockdown had a rather weird metal texture applied to its roof, which looked more like industrial floor tiles. A hotel building in Lockdown also had a wood texture applied, which is weird, since you'd normally expect tile or metal roofs in a city. The list goes on with supports in of the corridors seen upon leaving Elvet, where a texture more fitting for a round object was applied to a blocky support beam, making it look even blockier, some more strange roof texture choices and the use of big shattered window textures on ground level, which normally would be seen on top floors (to hide the fact that you can't go through the hole in the window, even if it's big enough for you) in Holy War and some weird choices in the subway tunnels right before the airboat part ends. However, a texturing glitch you'd normally never ever, ever, ever expect to find in any levels that Kasperg has at least tested, not to mention helped create, was in the large staircase leading out of Elvet in the beginning of Infiltration. It actually had the repeating stair texture problem, which Kasperg's covered and endorsed multiple times. A must-fix there! D:When it comes to custom textures in TC, most of them were quite well-made and used right. Some textures, like the bookcase one could've used some more visible bump/normal mapping to accent the detail and make them look less flat. Custom Combine propaganda signs were also a nice addition.Much like texturing, ambience was also pretty solid, however, some areas, like the apartments in Holy War, some parts in Finding Friends, seemed to lack some of the nice background ambient used so often in HL2, which instantly gives any area much more depth and realism. Sound choices were overall good and finding some good ol' HL1 stuff was pretty refreshing. Of course, the main aspect making this mod bloom in the sound department was custom voice acting. Some characters did sound robotic or had strong, sometimes hard-to-understand accents, but the overall result was very pleasing and well-executed, even if performed mostly by amateurs. My favourite characters were Argento and Larry, performed by Jason Fielding and Eric Soderstrom respectively. Larry's voice did sound a bit akward sometimes; I'm guessing either the pitch was turned down a bit or the actor had quinsy on recording day, however, his phrases sounded very well with just enough emotion to make it real, while not going over the top. Well done. If I were working on a mod that needed some voice acting to be done, I'd definitely contact those guys. As for lighting, it was plain superb. Lots of contrast and variation in almost every area really covered up the lack of detail in some inside areas, as well as enhanced the already good-looking ones. My favorite area was the one around Argento's bar in Infiltration. The orange-lit basketball court, combined with dark bluish night lighting gave that area some lovely contrast, as well as interesting shadows due to interesting architecture of the roof. Some inside areas, however, like ones in the Elvet, were quite dull and boring lighting-wise. Some contrast, at least in light intensity would have worked extremely well there and might've hid some of the boring and blocky architecture.
Bottom Line
Overall, I think The Citizen was worth waiting for. With great gameplay elements, overall good looks and lots of room for improvement, its one mod you shouldn't miss. In short: To Citizen!
Commented 16 years ago2007-12-25 08:30:08 UTC
in vault item: de_jihadComment #16164
Very impressive. I could've sworn this was for Source from the screenie.
+ Architecture. Nice and clean throughout, though it gets a bit blocky sometimes (like the buildings in the screenshot). That's mostly compensated by height variation, though some extra depth, like carving your windows/doorways into the wall a bit would fix that instantly.
I liked your palm tree props, the leaves looked really convincing. The corridors had decent detail, though something else filling them up besides crates would've worked very well. Another very nicely crafted area was the T spawn. The brush-based scenery looked quite convincing, which is a hard effect to achieve in a HL1 map.
+ Texturing. Blaz's textures fit the theme very well. Texturing was solid and clean throughout, didn't notice any real problems with it.
+ Lighting. Imo - it was very well made. You contrasted interior areas with exterior very well, while keeping it realistic. Personally, I think the gloomy lighting fit the torch-lit corridors very well, though you might want to add more torches or think of any other excuse to brighten it up a bit, cause most CSgeeks are bound to writing you angry emails about how they were pwned because "ur map r 2 darks". ;>
+ Gameplay. Didn't test it online, though judging from the layout - it looks balanced enough to play right. Again, some of the darker interior areas might ruin it for some players..
Also, I didn't quite understand your clipping in the CT spawn. Not only was there an unexplained invisible wall, you actually could get killed there by falling a meter or two from that ladder. Hell, if you want to prevent spawn-camping that bad - remove the camping areas instead of going to such crazy and unlogical extents.
- Ambience. The only thing this map lacked. Apart from the guitar melody played at the start of every round (nice, reminds me of de_survivor), there wasn't any more ambience. Add some, it would really liven up a map like that.
Overall - a very nice map with some cool details. Slightly lacking in some areas, however, so 4* it is. Great work.
The weapons were great, my fav. was definitely the grenade singing "Merry Xmas". It had me constantly chuckling in the first 10 mins. Animations were overall clean, though sometimes too repetative/fast (helper elfs repeated the same 2-3 animations every 5 or so seconds, making them look pretty crappy)
I think some Santa taunts after killing the enemies would've worked ok. Something Duke Nukem in a red suit would say, perhaps? ;D
Mapping was solid throughout. Pretty much all areas looked convincing and had moderate detail.
Gameplay-wise - challenging. I think some of the changed weapons could've been introduced earlier. I didn't like the zombies having tons of HP, making you either waste tons of ammo, which isn't plentiful, or go for the frustratingly slow crowbar-kill.
Commented 16 years ago2007-12-24 08:15:43 UTC
in vault item: awp_ferreiroComment #16151
Very nice.
+ Architecture. Both terrain and the houses were very nice and detailed. Props, unlike in de_mon, were chosen well and fit the town-in-the-mountains theme well. The 3D skybox was a great addition too, giving the map depth. The only cons were some of the inaccessible buildings being obiviously undetailed and rushed, deteriorating the overall nice looks.
+ Texturing. Nice and clean textures overall. Though again, some of the inaccessible buildings had badly aligned textures.
+ Ambience. Even with the weird sounds (lawnmower/vehicles ?) - they suited the map. They weren't too loud either making the playing experience more realistic and pleasant.
+ Gameplay. Unlike the other awp maps out there - this one actually has a layout. Simple, but providing lots of possibilities - it should give the players lots of freedom and an overall balanced and enjoyable play.
- Lighting. The only thing I disliked in the map. Dull and boring. You could've gone for something more blu or redish to simulate morning/dusk/dawn - anything but the old boring yellow.
Overall - definitely a very great-looking awp map. Definitely one of the best out there, I think. Awesome work, as usual. Looking forward to more maps from you. :>
Commented 16 years ago2007-12-21 19:00:39 UTC
in vault item: Huey RideComment #16140
Can't play it properly, the NPCs won't appear in HL and I don't have OpFor. ;/
The architecture/texturing could be improved, though. You could really go nuts with small gadgets & details in a small area like this, not caring about r_speeds.
Pretty good scripted sequences - decent architecture outside too. Wasn't anything too spectacular, I think some more action would've been great, maybe more ambients?
A sci-fi theme is one of the easiest ones to accomplish in a Half-Life map, since the original content has loads of suitable textures, models and sprites. I'd normally complain about having seen the same old thing used and well-made in another million maps, though since the contest this map was made for was all about utilizing the original stuff (mainly textures) without any extra custom content - It's fully understandable. So, let me finish my report to the Administrator, check my tie and let's all hop aboard the Vanilla Half-Life tram, before I start asking random bypassers whether they know who ate all the donuts."Now arriving.. dm_bulk"Panels, computers, pipes; from catwalks in the void, to computer and machinery rooms - architecture really makes this map bloom. There's loads of smartly chosen details accompanied with great and creative architecture. No hallway or open area looks the same and no part of any room is left undetailed, where pretty much every flat surface has some gadget, grating or pipe going through it. I really think this was made just right, keeping the details blended with the environment and not going overboard. There were also some moving machinery parts, steam jets and lasers to liven things up, though some areas, like the ones outside the spaceship could've been utilized better. Dynamic scenery, like other ships, asteroids or at least some jet exhaust flames would've worked just right. And even with these pros - there wasn't really anything you'd never seen before. I know, it's hard to achieve that with that many maps released using only original content, though you can always put a bit more effort in it.Texturing, while being limited to only default material, is very nice-looking and accompanies architecture well. Sure, something custom would've worked fine, though most areas, like the hallway with the hanging grating floor, leading to the iris door, or the room right before that hallway looked just right with original textures. I'm sure that alone might've made Bulk one of the winners in the competition it entered. However, apart from one or two weirdly aligned textures, there were some bigger flaws, like using the NULL texture on both normally-visible faces, as well as the ones you see when gaussjumping. Nothing too serious, but it deteriorates the overall great looks and is a bit annoying ingame.Along with texturing being completely original HL, only default ambients were used. Sound choices and placement were logical, although not flawless. Variety is usually a great thing, but since there are almost no bigger areas in the map - giving each room a different ambient sound isn't the best idea. There's too much contrast and different sounds are constantly interferring with each other in most areas, making it pretty annoying after a longer time of play. Either tune the existing sounds, adjust their radius and volume, or go for a base ambient track played throughout the map, removing some of the sounds in smaller areas. Some env_sounds would've livened things up a bit more too.Lighting, on the other hand, was overall pretty much great, with lots of contrast, giving each area even more of a distinct feel. Light source placement was creative enough, with lights put almost everywhere imaginable, and looked good with the sci-fi setting. What I think it lacked is some color variety, maybe some different light styles too. Things are pretty much clean in the gameplay department. The layout is overall close-quarters for some nice crowbar/shotgun fights, though it also has a couple of open areas for the heavier stuff. Weapon placement is great, ammo is plentiful, though there's something I found missing, but didn't realise what untill I ran the map for the 2nd time. There's no healthkits or batteries. At all. It's no real flaw and I guess the four health and three suitchargers in the map are supposed to compensate that, though I still find it strange not including any quick health or suit powerups, often saving you in combat.
Bottom Line
If I would've been the judge in the competition this map was made for, Bulk would have gotten my vote. With great utilization of original content, awesome looks, having only a couple of problems, and good gamplay - dm_bulk is definitely worth being on the maplist of any HLDM server.
Commented 17 years ago2007-11-17 11:12:11 UTC
in vault item: dm_ArmazenamentoComment #16013
Under the elevator in the central area. The AAATRIGGER texture, that's got Gabe's face on it (the one from from xeno.wad, I think) is applied to the botton of the elevator floor and it might be just me, but it's scrolling, like it was a conveyor.
Commented 17 years ago2007-11-16 18:46:35 UTC
in vault item: dm_ArmazenamentoComment #16006
Quite nice.
It's cool that you've actually added a wee bit from everything in HL (transit system, machinery, xen flora even!), which, combined with the ambience gave for an interesting, familliar feeling. Architecture, texturing and lighting was clean, but about average almost everywhere. Nothing too spectacular.
Weapon placement was pretty good, the layout - plain and simple.
What a map as small as this lacked was interactivity. None of the buttons/levers throughout the map did anything. Some traps, or puzzles would've been fun.
What amuses me the most is the name (even if there's no connection between it and the map). A clever way of making something dull in english sound fancy and exciting.
Commented 17 years ago2007-11-16 18:11:14 UTC
in vault item: De_DragosComment #16004
Most CZ maps have a _cz in the end, or info about it in the readme, etc. Though, yeah, a CZ icon for the MV wouldn't hurt.
Dragos: Neblogas map, bet minusu tikrai buvo. Apsvietimas man nlb patiko. Blankus labai, pagal skybox'a turetu but labiau oranzinis, i vakara uznesantis. Taip pat, kad tik 1 bombsaita idejai, ir kad CT kaiptik jame ir atsiranda gan bloga ideja geimplejui, nes jiem iskart sukuriamos idealios salygos campint. Garsu irgi truko, vejas, pauksciai medziuose, vandens ciurlenimas - visi prideda siek tiek prie realistiskumo. Dar viena beda buvo tai, kad ikrites i kanala po tiltu nebegalejai atgal ten uzlipti ir turejai ilgiausia kelia eiti aplink, kol vel sugryzt galejai. Deziu, man atrodo, truputi per daug. Priedangai galejai originalesniu, prie pilies(?) labiau tinkanciu objektu idet (statulos, augmenija, akmens detales).
Aisku, pliusai butu geros teksturos, svari ir nebloga architektura, detales. Patiko, kad beveik visur zemes pavirsius gruobletas buvo, gerai atrode. :>
Utopia + Elysium = Utopium. Sounds perfect, doesn't it? Well, not entirely. Personally, I'm a big fan of surreal maps/mods. They fully reflect the author's imagination, letting him go loose and create the kind of stuff he wouldn't put in a normal map. The author's made some surreal levels before, though none of them could be compared with Utopium. The map is basically a big arena with a large tower in the middle. It looks like a killbox and, actually, in most aspects, it is. Of course, it's not your average hollow cube with piles of weapons in every corner and that's, what makes it stand out. Weapons are placed very well in most areas, with heavier weapons and stronger powerups made hard-to-reach, ammo, healthkits and batteries placed where you need them without any piling. I also like how the unusual architecture is utilized in weapon placement, where most harder-to-reach edges or areas had items on them, forcing the players to make riskier moves for the valuable stuff. Plus - it makes most of the weapons look like they belong there, which isn't something you see often in a non-Half-Life themed map. Another interesting (and very nice-looking) idea was including lifting chambers. With the glows and very fitting sounds - they give you the coolest, although very slow lift to the upper level. It'd have been pretty interesting, if those lifts would heal the player as he emerges, enhancing the effect. Sadly, apart from the good stuff, Utopium also has some obvious King of the Hill on baby mode gameplay elements, which are quite a stab in the guts for the normal player. Almost every map I've played had the simplest gameplay rule, which goes something like: Do something stupid = Be punished or simply die; it's plain logic. Still - this map seems to be denying that, so doing something you'd normally consider suicide results in the opposite. Yes, a leap into the void, instead of killing you in some violent way, stripping you of your weapons and dropping you off in the middle of the map for other players to hunt down, chooses a baffling alternative and teleports you right on top of the huge tower, where there's also an RPG ready for you to pick up. Just go on and kill tons of unsuspecting players from a huge, safe distance. And to top that off - there's only one teleport destination, so if two players jump into the void anywhere at the same time - they'll always get stuck. That really messes things up.In contrast to flaws in gameplay - the visuals are all-round well made. Architecture fits the theme pretty well, with its indefinable style and borderless environment. The only thing I find less fitting is the symmetry in most paths and tower architecture, although keeping in mind, that "surreal" has no strict definition and everyone sees it their way, you can't consider it as a real flaw.Texturing was very clean and interesting throughout. A combination between concrete and organic material worked very well, creating nice contrast. Some small things, like no blue trim texture on the round windows in the tower, or blurry looking hi-res textures on edges of the paths could've been corrected/adjusted, though those are just minorities.Lighting has a huge influence on the whole calm and cool feel Utopium has, with light blue as a main color, broken up with the occasional yellow emitted by the orange plant lights. Those are a very nice addition both for lighting and detail, plus they have a neat glow effect that makes them look perfectly round at a distance. Though, even with the plants, some more contrast, like some yellow in the healing pool, would be a great addition. Ambience is also very well done in this map. Even with mostly default sounds from Half-Life and only a few additions from Counter-Strike - it creates a truly awesome and surreal atmosphere. In my opinion, it only lacks some randomly triggered sounds; they'd work quite well with the theme.
Bottom Line
WorldCrafter, being known for creating lots of high quality Counter-Strike maps, models and other custom content, wasn't the one you'd expect a bigger HLDM project from. However, Utopium is just that. With a surreal theme, differing from the author's usually preferred urban/city setting, and some interesting gameplay choices - it's not a perfect, yet a very interesting and, in most cases, original map, which, even with some flaws, is fully worth your time.
I don't even know where to begin.. Huge open areas you've never seen before in a CS map? Awesome looks and amazing care for detail? Refreshingly fun gameplay? Well, let me assure you - this map has it all, and much more.De_mon is set in an island, which unlike other CS/HL maps is completely re-created, giving you access to almost every single corner of it, creating one large, seamless arena with some very interesting and fun gameplay. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not just another killbox. There are plenty of routes and chokepoints and the ability to roam freely almost everywhere, while keeping the layout intact and playable, plus the huge scale of most paths/chokepoints really make dust look like a rat maze with cheese in its bomb targets when compared to this (no offence, DaveJ ;> ). All these aspects of the layout provide excellent conditions for the open-minded cs player to go loose planning his approach. And don't think the only weapon you'll ever need is an AWP. Even though it's a great idea to have a sniper or two on your team to cover you when rushing the targets in a map this big, there's still enough cover and "safe paths" for anyone with an AK-47 or M4A1 to kick some serious ass. Another good idea was including player-controlled vehicles; a boat and an elevator (even if a ski-resort-like elevator looks a tad odd in a place like this). They both add a bit of fun and variety. One thing I found really crazy, though, was placing AWPs in areas, where the player has a full view of the map! Go ahead, make it to the guard tower or lighthouse and slaughter the opposing team, while they're helplessly trying to hit you with their Desert Eagles in the pistol round. Now that's screwing things up!Obviously - it's not just the gameplay that makes this map so much different. Even if the detail's not that great at close range, the panoramic views are absolutely amazing, especially when your average wpoly count stays at about 700-800 and goes a bit over 1300 in the most open areas. That's why you can forgive the occasional chunky cliff or cheap-looking forest imitation, ignore some objects just begging to be detailed, or any textures, that could be less stretchy. The overall result makes up for that anyway. Another thing adding to the amazing panoramic views is the absolutely seamless transition between the map and skybox. At any distance - it's flawless. Yet again, though - there were some obvious problems too. The biggest one was some solids not being rendered underwater, uncovering some areas that shouldn't be seen from that point. You'll mostly use that to your advantage, so that makes both visuals and gameplay less appealing. Another thing I found weird was prop placement and model choices. russian police cars and pine or elk trees don't belong in a tropical environment. Actually, last time I checked - cars don't belong in a small island, that hasn't got a single road at all! Placing vehicles ontop of cliffs and making the player doubt that laws of physics ever existed in this island is not the way to go.Then texturing came to the rescue, saving or at least covering up some architecture quirks created due to extreme optimization. Thanks to some lovely blending textures hiding the chunkiness of the terrain. The buildings also used some nice oldskool textures from old de_inferno, the CS 1.5 version; they fit the theme pretty well. However, there were some obvious problems, like the horribly stretched scenery tree textures in some areas, making the forests there look like broccoli soup gone really bad.There is one aspect of this map, though, which is almost flawless. Atmosphere. Lighting is set up just the way it's supposed to be in a tropical island; very bright and warm, and to top that off - there's some sprites to simulate the extremely bright sun glow, creating a HDR-like bloom you've never seen before in other GoldSource maps. Ambience was also very well-made, with some randomly triggered sounds, giving it some nice variety. Probably the only thing I missed was the use of env_sound, that, if used smartly, would have been a very nice addition.
Bottom Line
Vehicles, water playing a large role, the scale and some other details really made this map feel a bit like one the old official cut-out CS maps back from the betas. (something between cs_docks and de_railroad), which is, to me, an incredibly refreshing feeling. So, even with it's flaws, de_mon is a fantastic map to explore and play. Amazing looks, considering the great performance, possibilities in gameplay, stunning ambience and one of the coolest easter egg sequences I've seen yet make this map a must-try for any CS player at least remotely interested in something new.
Probably the first thing you notice in this mod is the ambience. Both outside and inside - it was great. Smart use of soundscapes and verall good choice of sounds really points out the horror and surrealness even more. Lighting was also pretty nice, with some contrast and variety, though it could've been better considering that this is for Source.Another thing well made was the gameplay. You emerge into the mansion filled with nothing but one helluva load of zombies and headcrabs, given only your good ol' crowbar and trusty shotgun. NPC, weapon/supply placement was quite well-made, there was some key-collecting and backtracking, though it never got boring. One thing that might dissapoint the player though is that the combat, while being pretty well-balanced was mostly linear. The structure of the mansion and usage of fast zombies could've provided some fun and interesting vertical combat areas, though none of that was utilized. Still, overall - I enjoyed it.There were also details throughout The Mansion that kind of reflected Freeman's person. The huge bedroom with his crowbar, wine cellar with supplies and of course, a stained glass with the master of the mansion himself. The style of some puzzles was also pretty Freeman-like, so the fact, that this mansion is strictly Freeman's recidence was made quite obivious and proven well. Gman making the occasional random and unusual/weird appearance helped that a lot too. :>Horror was also one of the mod's strong parts. While having the usual blood-on-walls, corpses and spooky ambience, it also had some rather unexpected freak-out or just plain WTF moments. The corridor with an Ichtyosaur which scared me and, probably, lots of other players shitless, or the courtyard where the sky begins to fall.. literally.. are both good examples of that.While the mod was pretty strong in ambience and gameplay - the visual part of it was, mostly, a letdown. The architecture mostly resembled HL1, was overall blocky and bland. Texturing was an improvement from the last parts of The Mansion series, though it still needed more variation and overall more work in most areas.Outside - the mansion itself and the main entrance was quite well made, except for the horrible block-shaped bushes. Most of that area was also pretty blocky, but, at least, made a bit more realistic with props and some other details.Other outside areas were very, very, VERY bland. Both the courtyard with the moon falling and the back yard with a huge statue - they looked very poor texture and architecture-wise. Lithging wasn't much of a wonder there either.The cliff was only better looking on the outside. On the inside - the walls were perfectly flat. That's very poor for a rock surface.As for the inside - some of the rooms were, while blocky, pretty interesting, like the endless hallway, Freeman's bedroom, room with the pianos or the dining room. Even while the architecture/texturing wasn't at it's finest - that was usually covered up with nice details, interesting brush-based props or entity setups.
Bottom line
The Mansion 3, while not having fully utilized Source's potential, was very enjoyable to play. Combining awesome atmosphere and good gameplay, even with all the flaws, it gave an interesting surreal horror twist to the original Freeman experience already seen in loads of other mods.
Commented 17 years ago2007-08-02 15:02:42 UTC
in vault item: upenderComment #15492
They're not the same person. IPs don't lie, so quit bitching about his friend giving him a high rating. :/
As for the map - it's far from perfect, though I kind of liked it.
The architecture was mostly clean-ish and average, but EXTREMELY undetailed. The theme being surreal provides you with tons of choices to spice things up in an original and weird way. Didn't see any of that inside the building. Texturing was very dull and wasn't anywhere near surrealistic. Same problem with lighting. Another thing, that you've overlooked was ambience. Some weird sounds would've been great. About the gameplay and layout - it's pretty interesting, though as Sajo said, the weapon placement was random. That's a very bad idea for a map with one main battle area, since it makes the map look more like a killbox. The r_speeds were a bit high in the bottom/top of the map, though it's still playable. Still - making a killbox look like a decent map isn't easy and you've accomplished that quite well. :> I'd give 2.5 stars, since it's very lacking, but let's make that a 3. Work harder on visuals and the atmosphere and you'll have yourself quite an original and fun map.
Will try it out once it's on in the server. ;>
Search cs-maps.org or fpsbanana and you'll see.
Remaking a crappy map like iceworld and making it suck even more by removing the last shred of originality and texturing it with dust textures is nothing more than wasting your time.
And why did you leave the menu on when taking your screenie? You can barely make anything out now.
Texturing — 8.5
Ambience — 4.5
Lighting — 5
Gameplay — 6
Review
One doesn't usually see plenty of bigger Christmas-special projects, mostly because the Spirit of Christmas Mapping comes late, mostly by mid-December, and it's usually impossible to create anything half-decent in such a short period of time. However, Hlife_Hotdog seems to be getting the aforementioned spirit somewhat sooner and has already managed to provide TWHL with solid Christmas mods two years in a row. Not only does the sequel to Santa's Revenge, Santa's Revenge 2: Xmas Meltdown pack your sleigh with gunpowder-filled snowballs, it also hands you an extra pair of mittens.Following the story - some evil kid arranged a whole kindergarten Wehrmacht against Santa (you) because someone didn't bother making presents for this Christmas. So before you know it - elves are being slaughtered, your Grotto's getting some extreme TNT-induced makeovers and worst of all - you're forced to finally get off your comfortable Santa's throne and haul some obnoxious arse. This is where you're introduced to the witty and creative replacements for weapons, items and monsters, plus a new Santa's interface. Ironically, even if default weapons are replaced with their toy counterparts, like a squirtgun for the 9mm Pistol and scale Dodge Viper models for Snarks, the kids (formerly human grunts) you fight bleed for real and don't seem like they're going to be OK once gibbed with the Christmas tree Crowbar replacement. To counter that, the fact that you're using toys as weapons is made pretty clear when it takes shitloads of ammo and patience to take out even the weakest enemies. I understand trying to make things challenging, though unless you've got a couple of "just-in-case" Santa sleighs stuffed with explosives parked behind the back, you'll most likely be spending 3 or more frustrating minutes Christmas tree-bashing or squirt-gunning those bloody steroid-stuffed snowman zombies. Adding to the frustration factor, the absolute lack of autosaves often forces you to replay the same hard-as-hell sections over and over again. Another amazingly annoying thing deteriorating the experience was the use of dense fog in large battle arenas with less cover. Fog, being just a client-side visual effect in Half-Life, only limits the player's view distance, leaving any other monsters with perfect, clear vision. In the park level, this results in being raped with every projectile imaginable from all four directions at once, while running around desperately frantically looking for who and from where is shooting at you. Impossible? More like to-hell-with-this-shit-hard.There were also some other annoying nitpicks, like unrealistic fall damage in the rooftop area, where a 3 meter fall kills you instantly, or the booby-trapped present placed in the barn outside the Grotto exploding in your face once aproached. Not leaving any kind of notice or warning (you could've gone ala The Citizen with a large "DO NOT TOUCH" sign) turns a trap with loads of lulz potential into just another reason to quickload. Surprisingly though, monsters were placed quite well throughout (with the exception of the park level), along with ammo and powerups, which would've made gameplay quite enjoyable if it only wasn't for the godlike strength of your enemies. I also enjoyed some parts, like the parachute sequence, swinging on huge metal support beams from building to building in the rooftops and of course the final boss encounter (that little bastard should've been armed with the Egon, or at least crowbar! ;> )Much like gameplay, architecture was, even if mostly quite diverse and clean, often lacking that "something" to make it really bloom. Santa's Grotto, for example, like any fairy tale-like imaginary place, lets the mapper leave his usual coherence or realism constraints behind and simply go nuts making up the craziest, most inventive and maybe even surreal environments for their respective made up occupants to prosper in (or not). However, even if having a rather unique style for its interior with red ribbon-like supports and trims, it was still a set of boring blocky grey concrete corridors, broken up by the occasional open area, often stuffed with crates. A bit of the usual details like pipes, gratings and random gadgets, plus some Christmas trees or lights (as seen in Santa's Revenge 1) would've spiced things up just right there. More areas suffer from similar problems, like the rooftops, which are, pretty much, plain concrete surfaces with a vent or two desperately trying to break them up.It's not all coal in your stockings with architecture, however. Even if the interior had its issues, the first room with Santa's throne was rather spectacular. With its superbly crafted large toy soldier statues, overall good detail and a cool destruction sequence in the end, it was really close to how the other areas should've ended up looking like. Adding to that, the Grotto exterior and surroundings, even if nearly unplayable with wpolies going as high as 3000 (thanks to the awesome idea of killing leaks by putting a skybox around the entire level), was also nicely built. Having quite nice (yet poorly optimized) scenery and decent detail, it probably was my second favorite area after the throne room. Another and, again, very laggy area, was the park. The canal looked very convincing thanks to awesome reflections, paths were nicely curved and detailed; Only thing I think it lacked architecture-wise was more height variation in terrain. Even with the huge r_speeds in that area, some extra hills and trenches for cover, if properly optimized, would've pretty much saved gameplay there and made the park much more believable and interesting to explore.Though it's ambience and lighting that were the weakest aspects of this mod. Ambience, even if not completely overlooked, was very lacking and, in most places, left out. Bland corridors were even more boring without a single ambient sound to at least somehow spice them up, outside areas, where ambience is usually the main thing making that place feel open and borderless, had either a single silent wind sound in the background, or no ambience at all. Some other key areas, like the throne room also suffered from this problem. It would've been fun to hear some more subtle Christmas-themed ambience aswell - that alone would've added a lot to the holiday atmosphere.As for lighting - there's not really much to say. Apart from the single half-decent-lit area, the park, where you couldn't see any of the lighting due to the dense fog, almost every other single room was lit with the usual plain boring yellow. Hell, even blue texlights lights emitted the same bloody color. Lighting usually saves average-looking boring rooms and makes them at least somehow more interesting. In this case, though, it just added to the dullness and deteriorated the Christmas atmosphere.Bad things aside, texturing was refreshingly solid throughout the mod. I found no serious issues and even if there were any minor alignment issues or scaled up faces, these were mostly compensated by a nice array of custom textures. They weren't anything too spectacular, yet did their job right and with all the other cool custom content, made Santa's Revenge 2 feel even fresher (add some motivational posters for the elves inside the Grotto next time! ^^ )Bottom Line
Even if lacking in most areas, this is an awesome piece of work for a Christmas mod. With the hilarious new content and some of your patience, Santa's Revenge 2: Xmas Meltdown could probably be considered the best way of bringing a bit of Half-Life to the holidays.Will check it out.
I'm probably using this in an upcoming Flat-Life map I'm working on. ;>
Look through your compile log (a .log/.txt file in the folder with the .rmf file of this map) for any errors and/or warnings and post em' here, or make a thread about them.
As for now, moved to Unfinished Maps.
Welcome. :>
Texturing — 7
Ambience — 8
Lighting — 9
Gameplay — 8
Review
This mod, being a collaboration between some of the best independent mappers out there, Kasperg and Playbus, was definitely something to look forward to with great anxiety and huge expectation. Five minutes after the first release, when pretty much every PlanetPhillip member had already finished it and found all the secret areas, half the community here had already gotten their hands on it. Lots of discussion was spawned and before you know it - TWHL was being torn apart by intense arguing, which later evolved into flamewars, resulting in other, much stronger repercussions.To Citizen or not To Citizen?That was the question. Answer time.- The two following paragraphs contain my horribly long-winded opinion and overall thoughts on gameplay in this mod. It's more tips & suggestions for developers, so feel free to skip it if you're not interested in that kind of stuff.Bottom Line
Overall, I think The Citizen was worth waiting for. With great gameplay elements, overall good looks and lots of room for improvement, its one mod you shouldn't miss. In short: To Citizen!Will download & play once I get home.
+ Architecture. Nice and clean throughout, though it gets a bit blocky sometimes (like the buildings in the screenshot). That's mostly compensated by height variation, though some extra depth, like carving your windows/doorways into the wall a bit would fix that instantly.
I liked your palm tree props, the leaves looked really convincing. The corridors had decent detail, though something else filling them up besides crates would've worked very well. Another very nicely crafted area was the T spawn. The brush-based scenery looked quite convincing, which is a hard effect to achieve in a HL1 map.
+ Texturing. Blaz's textures fit the theme very well. Texturing was solid and clean throughout, didn't notice any real problems with it.
+ Lighting. Imo - it was very well made. You contrasted interior areas with exterior very well, while keeping it realistic. Personally, I think the gloomy lighting fit the torch-lit corridors very well, though you might want to add more torches or think of any other excuse to brighten it up a bit, cause most CSgeeks are bound to writing you angry emails about how they were pwned because "ur map r 2 darks". ;>
+ Gameplay. Didn't test it online, though judging from the layout - it looks balanced enough to play right. Again, some of the darker interior areas might ruin it for some players..
Also, I didn't quite understand your clipping in the CT spawn. Not only was there an unexplained invisible wall, you actually could get killed there by falling a meter or two from that ladder. Hell, if you want to prevent spawn-camping that bad - remove the camping areas instead of going to such crazy and unlogical extents.
- Ambience. The only thing this map lacked. Apart from the guitar melody played at the start of every round (nice, reminds me of de_survivor), there wasn't any more ambience. Add some, it would really liven up a map like that.
Overall - a very nice map with some cool details. Slightly lacking in some areas, however, so 4* it is. Great work.
The weapons were great, my fav. was definitely the grenade singing "Merry Xmas". It had me constantly chuckling in the first 10 mins. Animations were overall clean, though sometimes too repetative/fast (helper elfs repeated the same 2-3 animations every 5 or so seconds, making them look pretty crappy)
I think some Santa taunts after killing the enemies would've worked ok. Something Duke Nukem in a red suit would say, perhaps? ;D
Mapping was solid throughout. Pretty much all areas looked convincing and had moderate detail.
Gameplay-wise - challenging. I think some of the changed weapons could've been introduced earlier. I didn't like the zombies having tons of HP, making you either waste tons of ammo, which isn't plentiful, or go for the frustratingly slow crowbar-kill.
Overall - a very nice Christmas mod. 5* and..
Merry Xmas!
+ Architecture. Both terrain and the houses were very nice and detailed. Props, unlike in de_mon, were chosen well and fit the town-in-the-mountains theme well. The 3D skybox was a great addition too, giving the map depth. The only cons were some of the inaccessible buildings being obiviously undetailed and rushed, deteriorating the overall nice looks.
+ Texturing. Nice and clean textures overall. Though again, some of the inaccessible buildings had badly aligned textures.
+ Ambience. Even with the weird sounds (lawnmower/vehicles ?) - they suited the map. They weren't too loud either making the playing experience more realistic and pleasant.
+ Gameplay. Unlike the other awp maps out there - this one actually has a layout. Simple, but providing lots of possibilities - it should give the players lots of freedom and an overall balanced and enjoyable play.
- Lighting. The only thing I disliked in the map. Dull and boring. You could've gone for something more blu or redish to simulate morning/dusk/dawn - anything but the old boring yellow.
Overall - definitely a very great-looking awp map. Definitely one of the best out there, I think.
Awesome work, as usual. Looking forward to more maps from you. :>
The architecture/texturing could be improved, though. You could really go nuts with small gadgets & details in a small area like this, not caring about r_speeds.
Some recycled content from Life's End, I see. ;]
The maze could've been more challenging, maybe some traps or whatnot to make it more interesting.
Anyway - nice job.
Tis' the season to be jolly after all, so 5* it is.
Merry Xmas!
Good job overall - 3 stars.
Texturing — 8
Ambience — 7
Lighting — 8
Gameplay — 9
Review
A sci-fi theme is one of the easiest ones to accomplish in a Half-Life map, since the original content has loads of suitable textures, models and sprites. I'd normally complain about having seen the same old thing used and well-made in another million maps, though since the contest this map was made for was all about utilizing the original stuff (mainly textures) without any extra custom content - It's fully understandable. So, let me finish my report to the Administrator, check my tie and let's all hop aboard the Vanilla Half-Life tram, before I start asking random bypassers whether they know who ate all the donuts."Now arriving.. dm_bulk"Panels, computers, pipes; from catwalks in the void, to computer and machinery rooms - architecture really makes this map bloom. There's loads of smartly chosen details accompanied with great and creative architecture. No hallway or open area looks the same and no part of any room is left undetailed, where pretty much every flat surface has some gadget, grating or pipe going through it. I really think this was made just right, keeping the details blended with the environment and not going overboard. There were also some moving machinery parts, steam jets and lasers to liven things up, though some areas, like the ones outside the spaceship could've been utilized better. Dynamic scenery, like other ships, asteroids or at least some jet exhaust flames would've worked just right. And even with these pros - there wasn't really anything you'd never seen before. I know, it's hard to achieve that with that many maps released using only original content, though you can always put a bit more effort in it.Texturing, while being limited to only default material, is very nice-looking and accompanies architecture well. Sure, something custom would've worked fine, though most areas, like the hallway with the hanging grating floor, leading to the iris door, or the room right before that hallway looked just right with original textures. I'm sure that alone might've made Bulk one of the winners in the competition it entered. However, apart from one or two weirdly aligned textures, there were some bigger flaws, like using the NULL texture on both normally-visible faces, as well as the ones you see when gaussjumping. Nothing too serious, but it deteriorates the overall great looks and is a bit annoying ingame.Along with texturing being completely original HL, only default ambients were used. Sound choices and placement were logical, although not flawless. Variety is usually a great thing, but since there are almost no bigger areas in the map - giving each room a different ambient sound isn't the best idea. There's too much contrast and different sounds are constantly interferring with each other in most areas, making it pretty annoying after a longer time of play. Either tune the existing sounds, adjust their radius and volume, or go for a base ambient track played throughout the map, removing some of the sounds in smaller areas. Some env_sounds would've livened things up a bit more too.Lighting, on the other hand, was overall pretty much great, with lots of contrast, giving each area even more of a distinct feel. Light source placement was creative enough, with lights put almost everywhere imaginable, and looked good with the sci-fi setting. What I think it lacked is some color variety, maybe some different light styles too. Things are pretty much clean in the gameplay department. The layout is overall close-quarters for some nice crowbar/shotgun fights, though it also has a couple of open areas for the heavier stuff. Weapon placement is great, ammo is plentiful, though there's something I found missing, but didn't realise what untill I ran the map for the 2nd time. There's no healthkits or batteries. At all. It's no real flaw and I guess the four health and three suitchargers in the map are supposed to compensate that, though I still find it strange not including any quick health or suit powerups, often saving you in combat.Bottom Line
If I would've been the judge in the competition this map was made for, Bulk would have gotten my vote. With great utilization of original content, awesome looks, having only a couple of problems, and good gamplay - dm_bulk is definitely worth being on the maplist of any HLDM server.Great work.
Screeneh
Seemed too funny to be a coincidence. :>
.. or is that just something you've overlooked?
It's cool that you've actually added a wee bit from everything in HL (transit system, machinery, xen flora even!), which, combined with the ambience gave for an interesting, familliar feeling. Architecture, texturing and lighting was clean, but about average almost everywhere. Nothing too spectacular.
Weapon placement was pretty good, the layout - plain and simple.
What a map as small as this lacked was interactivity. None of the buttons/levers throughout the map did anything. Some traps, or puzzles would've been fun.
What amuses me the most is the name (even if there's no connection between it and the map). A clever way of making something dull in english sound fancy and exciting.
Overall - I liked it. Nice easter egg(?) too.
Dragos:
Neblogas map, bet minusu tikrai buvo. Apsvietimas man nlb patiko. Blankus labai, pagal skybox'a turetu but labiau oranzinis, i vakara uznesantis. Taip pat, kad tik 1 bombsaita idejai, ir kad CT kaiptik jame ir atsiranda gan bloga ideja geimplejui, nes jiem iskart sukuriamos idealios salygos campint. Garsu irgi truko, vejas, pauksciai medziuose, vandens ciurlenimas - visi prideda siek tiek prie realistiskumo. Dar viena beda buvo tai, kad ikrites i kanala po tiltu nebegalejai atgal ten uzlipti ir turejai ilgiausia kelia eiti aplink, kol vel sugryzt galejai. Deziu, man atrodo, truputi per daug. Priedangai galejai originalesniu, prie pilies(?) labiau tinkanciu objektu idet (statulos, augmenija, akmens detales).
Aisku, pliusai butu geros teksturos, svari ir nebloga architektura, detales. Patiko, kad beveik visur zemes pavirsius gruobletas buvo, gerai atrode. :>
3/5.
A more tetris-like interface (score, etc) would've been awesome.
Still - great job. :>
Isverciau aprasyma is labusu ir idejau.
Sveiks atvykes. Aprasyma pasistenk imest, nes mazai kas siusis.
Spausk edit prie mapo pavadinimo, ten galesi keist viska.
Looks alright, can't check it out, though, don't have FF. ;<
Texturing — 8
Ambience — 9
Lighting — 9
Gameplay — 6
Review
Utopia + Elysium = Utopium. Sounds perfect, doesn't it? Well, not entirely. Personally, I'm a big fan of surreal maps/mods. They fully reflect the author's imagination, letting him go loose and create the kind of stuff he wouldn't put in a normal map. The author's made some surreal levels before, though none of them could be compared with Utopium. The map is basically a big arena with a large tower in the middle. It looks like a killbox and, actually, in most aspects, it is. Of course, it's not your average hollow cube with piles of weapons in every corner and that's, what makes it stand out. Weapons are placed very well in most areas, with heavier weapons and stronger powerups made hard-to-reach, ammo, healthkits and batteries placed where you need them without any piling. I also like how the unusual architecture is utilized in weapon placement, where most harder-to-reach edges or areas had items on them, forcing the players to make riskier moves for the valuable stuff. Plus - it makes most of the weapons look like they belong there, which isn't something you see often in a non-Half-Life themed map. Another interesting (and very nice-looking) idea was including lifting chambers. With the glows and very fitting sounds - they give you the coolest, although very slow lift to the upper level. It'd have been pretty interesting, if those lifts would heal the player as he emerges, enhancing the effect. Sadly, apart from the good stuff, Utopium also has some obvious King of the Hill on baby mode gameplay elements, which are quite a stab in the guts for the normal player. Almost every map I've played had the simplest gameplay rule, which goes something like: Do something stupid = Be punished or simply die; it's plain logic. Still - this map seems to be denying that, so doing something you'd normally consider suicide results in the opposite. Yes, a leap into the void, instead of killing you in some violent way, stripping you of your weapons and dropping you off in the middle of the map for other players to hunt down, chooses a baffling alternative and teleports you right on top of the huge tower, where there's also an RPG ready for you to pick up. Just go on and kill tons of unsuspecting players from a huge, safe distance. And to top that off - there's only one teleport destination, so if two players jump into the void anywhere at the same time - they'll always get stuck. That really messes things up.In contrast to flaws in gameplay - the visuals are all-round well made. Architecture fits the theme pretty well, with its indefinable style and borderless environment. The only thing I find less fitting is the symmetry in most paths and tower architecture, although keeping in mind, that "surreal" has no strict definition and everyone sees it their way, you can't consider it as a real flaw.Texturing was very clean and interesting throughout. A combination between concrete and organic material worked very well, creating nice contrast. Some small things, like no blue trim texture on the round windows in the tower, or blurry looking hi-res textures on edges of the paths could've been corrected/adjusted, though those are just minorities.Lighting has a huge influence on the whole calm and cool feel Utopium has, with light blue as a main color, broken up with the occasional yellow emitted by the orange plant lights. Those are a very nice addition both for lighting and detail, plus they have a neat glow effect that makes them look perfectly round at a distance. Though, even with the plants, some more contrast, like some yellow in the healing pool, would be a great addition.Ambience is also very well done in this map. Even with mostly default sounds from Half-Life and only a few additions from Counter-Strike - it creates a truly awesome and surreal atmosphere. In my opinion, it only lacks some randomly triggered sounds; they'd work quite well with the theme.
Bottom Line
WorldCrafter, being known for creating lots of high quality Counter-Strike maps, models and other custom content, wasn't the one you'd expect a bigger HLDM project from. However, Utopium is just that. With a surreal theme, differing from the author's usually preferred urban/city setting, and some interesting gameplay choices - it's not a perfect, yet a very interesting and, in most cases, original map, which, even with some flaws, is fully worth your time.I really like the contrast and wireframe look in the screenie. Will check it out once I'm home.
Though it still deserves 5*, just for the effort. :>
It's pretty awesome, though the shadows being that pitch dark tell me you haven't run -bounce in RAD when compiling it.
Texturing — 8
Ambience — 10
Lighting — 10
Gameplay — 9
Review
I don't even know where to begin.. Huge open areas you've never seen before in a CS map? Awesome looks and amazing care for detail? Refreshingly fun gameplay? Well, let me assure you - this map has it all, and much more.De_mon is set in an island, which unlike other CS/HL maps is completely re-created, giving you access to almost every single corner of it, creating one large, seamless arena with some very interesting and fun gameplay. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not just another killbox. There are plenty of routes and chokepoints and the ability to roam freely almost everywhere, while keeping the layout intact and playable, plus the huge scale of most paths/chokepoints really make dust look like a rat maze with cheese in its bomb targets when compared to this (no offence, DaveJ ;> ). All these aspects of the layout provide excellent conditions for the open-minded cs player to go loose planning his approach. And don't think the only weapon you'll ever need is an AWP. Even though it's a great idea to have a sniper or two on your team to cover you when rushing the targets in a map this big, there's still enough cover and "safe paths" for anyone with an AK-47 or M4A1 to kick some serious ass. Another good idea was including player-controlled vehicles; a boat and an elevator (even if a ski-resort-like elevator looks a tad odd in a place like this). They both add a bit of fun and variety. One thing I found really crazy, though, was placing AWPs in areas, where the player has a full view of the map! Go ahead, make it to the guard tower or lighthouse and slaughter the opposing team, while they're helplessly trying to hit you with their Desert Eagles in the pistol round. Now that's screwing things up!Obviously - it's not just the gameplay that makes this map so much different. Even if the detail's not that great at close range, the panoramic views are absolutely amazing, especially when your average wpoly count stays at about 700-800 and goes a bit over 1300 in the most open areas. That's why you can forgive the occasional chunky cliff or cheap-looking forest imitation, ignore some objects just begging to be detailed, or any textures, that could be less stretchy. The overall result makes up for that anyway. Another thing adding to the amazing panoramic views is the absolutely seamless transition between the map and skybox. At any distance - it's flawless. Yet again, though - there were some obvious problems too. The biggest one was some solids not being rendered underwater, uncovering some areas that shouldn't be seen from that point. You'll mostly use that to your advantage, so that makes both visuals and gameplay less appealing. Another thing I found weird was prop placement and model choices. russian police cars and pine or elk trees don't belong in a tropical environment. Actually, last time I checked - cars don't belong in a small island, that hasn't got a single road at all! Placing vehicles ontop of cliffs and making the player doubt that laws of physics ever existed in this island is not the way to go.Then texturing came to the rescue, saving or at least covering up some architecture quirks created due to extreme optimization. Thanks to some lovely blending textures hiding the chunkiness of the terrain. The buildings also used some nice oldskool textures from old de_inferno, the CS 1.5 version; they fit the theme pretty well. However, there were some obvious problems, like the horribly stretched scenery tree textures in some areas, making the forests there look like broccoli soup gone really bad.There is one aspect of this map, though, which is almost flawless. Atmosphere. Lighting is set up just the way it's supposed to be in a tropical island; very bright and warm, and to top that off - there's some sprites to simulate the extremely bright sun glow, creating a HDR-like bloom you've never seen before in other GoldSource maps. Ambience was also very well-made, with some randomly triggered sounds, giving it some nice variety. Probably the only thing I missed was the use of env_sound, that, if used smartly, would have been a very nice addition.Bottom Line
Vehicles, water playing a large role, the scale and some other details really made this map feel a bit like one the old official cut-out CS maps back from the betas. (something between cs_docks and de_railroad), which is, to me, an incredibly refreshing feeling. So, even with it's flaws, de_mon is a fantastic map to explore and play. Amazing looks, considering the great performance, possibilities in gameplay, stunning ambience and one of the coolest easter egg sequences I've seen yet make this map a must-try for any CS player at least remotely interested in something new.Va screenshotas, aiskiai matos. ;>
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/179/oroflhh0.jpg
Downloading..
Next time - when you're adding something about the map - edit the description, rather than posting a comment.
Texturing — 6
Ambience — 9
Lighting — 7
Gameplay — 8
Review
Probably the first thing you notice in this mod is the ambience. Both outside and inside - it was great. Smart use of soundscapes and verall good choice of sounds really points out the horror and surrealness even more. Lighting was also pretty nice, with some contrast and variety, though it could've been better considering that this is for Source.Another thing well made was the gameplay. You emerge into the mansion filled with nothing but one helluva load of zombies and headcrabs, given only your good ol' crowbar and trusty shotgun. NPC, weapon/supply placement was quite well-made, there was some key-collecting and backtracking, though it never got boring. One thing that might dissapoint the player though is that the combat, while being pretty well-balanced was mostly linear. The structure of the mansion and usage of fast zombies could've provided some fun and interesting vertical combat areas, though none of that was utilized. Still, overall - I enjoyed it.There were also details throughout The Mansion that kind of reflected Freeman's person. The huge bedroom with his crowbar, wine cellar with supplies and of course, a stained glass with the master of the mansion himself. The style of some puzzles was also pretty Freeman-like, so the fact, that this mansion is strictly Freeman's recidence was made quite obivious and proven well. Gman making the occasional random and unusual/weird appearance helped that a lot too. :>Horror was also one of the mod's strong parts. While having the usual blood-on-walls, corpses and spooky ambience, it also had some rather unexpected freak-out or just plain WTF moments. The corridor with an Ichtyosaur which scared me and, probably, lots of other players shitless, or the courtyard where the sky begins to fall.. literally.. are both good examples of that.While the mod was pretty strong in ambience and gameplay - the visual part of it was, mostly, a letdown. The architecture mostly resembled HL1, was overall blocky and bland. Texturing was an improvement from the last parts of The Mansion series, though it still needed more variation and overall more work in most areas.Outside - the mansion itself and the main entrance was quite well made, except for the horrible block-shaped bushes. Most of that area was also pretty blocky, but, at least, made a bit more realistic with props and some other details.Other outside areas were very, very, VERY bland. Both the courtyard with the moon falling and the back yard with a huge statue - they looked very poor texture and architecture-wise. Lithging wasn't much of a wonder there either.The cliff was only better looking on the outside. On the inside - the walls were perfectly flat. That's very poor for a rock surface.As for the inside - some of the rooms were, while blocky, pretty interesting, like the endless hallway, Freeman's bedroom, room with the pianos or the dining room. Even while the architecture/texturing wasn't at it's finest - that was usually covered up with nice details, interesting brush-based props or entity setups.Bottom line
The Mansion 3, while not having fully utilized Source's potential, was very enjoyable to play. Combining awesome atmosphere and good gameplay, even with all the flaws, it gave an interesting surreal horror twist to the original Freeman experience already seen in loads of other mods.As for the map - it's far from perfect, though I kind of liked it.
The architecture was mostly clean-ish and average, but EXTREMELY undetailed. The theme being surreal provides you with tons of choices to spice things up in an original and weird way. Didn't see any of that inside the building. Texturing was very dull and wasn't anywhere near surrealistic. Same problem with lighting.
Another thing, that you've overlooked was ambience. Some weird sounds would've been great.
About the gameplay and layout - it's pretty interesting, though as Sajo said, the weapon placement was random. That's a very bad idea for a map with one main battle area, since it makes the map look more like a killbox. The r_speeds were a bit high in the bottom/top of the map, though it's still playable.
Still - making a killbox look like a decent map isn't easy and you've accomplished that quite well. :>
I'd give 2.5 stars, since it's very lacking, but let's make that a 3. Work harder on visuals and the atmosphere and you'll have yourself quite an original and fun map.
Lookin' good. downloads